The league has options for troubled franchises. The league could have bought the Thrashers back from their owners and either operated them, sold them or contracted. The league may well have looked at True North and the Winnipeg market and thought " there's a decent hockey market, will support a team but will never be able to pay the outrageous expansion fee we will be charging". So they were OK with the relo scenario.
IMO it's still not a certainty that there are 2 groups able to fork over $500 million for a hockey team. Yeah you can finance it with debt but I don't think most sports teams have fantastic cash flow situations. It is the increase in franchise values where the real money is made. If they do get their $1 billion the next relo is going to cost someone a ton of money.
|